Fine Living: How To Meet The Queen

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II enjoys immense worldwide popularity. Having reigned in England for 55 years, she has only eight years to go before surpassing her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria as the longest reigning British monarch in history.

Although the last century or so hasn’t been terribly kind to royalty, they still hold a beloved — if fading — place in society. Because of this status, many people don’t know how to act around the Queen, including a certain U.S. citizen who also happens to be the U.S. President.

During a formal dinner in 1991, when Bush Sr. was in power, President George W. Bush told the Queen he was his family’s black sheep before asking her: “Who’s yours?” First Lady Barbara Bush reportedly interjected, “Don’t answer that.”

In May 2007, with the Queen at his side, President Bush flubbed his words and accidentally suggested she toured America in 1776, and then turned and winked at her. Fittingly, Bush later described the look she gave him as one “only a mother could give a child."

Yet because diplomacy runs according to protocol, heads of state and other dignitaries are held to higher standards when meeting the Queen when circumstances are decidedly more formal.

Although chances are slim, there are some opportunities where you might possibly meet her, including at a informal luncheon party at Buckingham Palace where she and her husband meet distinguished people from various professions, at a garden party at Buckingham Palace or Palace of Holyroodhouse, or more likely, on one of her many royal walkabouts.

royal rendezvous

The odds are that if you do meet the Queen, it will be a very brief interaction. Believe it or not, according to the royals’ website, while traditional forms of meeting royalty do exist, ultimately nothing is compulsory or obligatory. Rather, the Queen expects no more from you than what you should expect from her: common courtesy.

While a formal dinner with the Queen may involve quite a bit of etiquette, simply meeting her would require sticking to acceptable standards of behavior. However, there is a certain bit of commonly recognized protocol you might want to follow.

Formal protocol

Stand when she enters the room.

Overt gestures of genuflection from anyone — even her subjects — are not expected, but should you feel like it, a man may bow his head from the neck, and a woman may perform a small curtsy.